Odense aiming to become Scandinavia’s mecca for e-sports

E-sport is one of the fastest growing sports, with over 150 million people competing in computer games worldwide (photo: iStock)

February 25th, 2016 11:23 am| by Lucie Rychla

The city of Odense has an ambition to become Scandinavia’s mecca for e-sports enthusiasts just like the Roskilde Festival is to music fans.

According to Ronnie Hansen, the event manager at Odense Municipality, the city harbours plans to host the region’s largest event for video gaming, which it believes it could attract 30,000 spectators from all over the world.

E-sports is professional video gaming in which players and teams compete in computer games such as League of Legends, StarCraft, Counter Strike or Call of Duty and receive hefty financial prizes.

The future Roskilde
Financially-speaking, it is one of the fastest-growing sports, estimated to grow by 25 percent this year and make around 500 million dollars in revenue, according to Deloitte.

“Once it is up and running and becomes a tradition, the event will generate money for Odense, just like the music festival generates money for Roskilde – no doubt about it,” Jesper Jørgensen, a sports economist at Deloitte, told DR.